


hold on (we're gonna make it if it takes all night)

by leopoldjamesfitz



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, going to the common room and they're, gonna get married
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-03
Updated: 2018-02-03
Packaged: 2019-03-13 01:11:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13559505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leopoldjamesfitz/pseuds/leopoldjamesfitz
Summary: “I suppose we have a lot to talk about,” he murmured after a long moment.They hadn't been afforded a lot of moments to do that. Since his arrival in Space, in the future, rather waking up to another reality, there'd been little time to do anything other than get them all back. No time to talk about, well everything.The Framework. The Future. Them.He knew that the only thing they had come to terms with was their relationship, and after spending six months locked up in solitary, thinking about her with every passing moment that he was allowed, he had never been more thankful than to know that they were still on the same page as they were with everything else.That there was still a chance at them.





	hold on (we're gonna make it if it takes all night)

**Author's Note:**

> I've been thinking about a scene like this since the day I found out that they were getting married, and honestly, I would love it if I'm right and they do give us something like this. Based loosely on a scene from ABC's Castle, in case you picked up on that ;) I hope you all enjoy, and thank you for reading. 
> 
> Not beta-ed, all errors my own.

In the wake of everything that happened, he thought, it was nice to have a moment. An albeit fleeting moment, but a moment nonetheless. The second the door shut behind them, Fitz relaxed a little, though he didn't tear his gaze away from it for a beat. Not until her hand reached up and slid around his shoulder and squeezed tightly.

He released a slow breath and met her gaze, drawing his tongue along his lower lip as he watched her carefully, taking a moment before he crossed the distance between them and pressed his lips against hers. Jemma let out a soft gasp, her fingers immediately reaching for his hair.

They were saved from imprisonment, and never more afraid of a future that was upon them, but they were together. Nothing else mattered.

Jemma pulled away slowly, dragging her fingertips along his cheekbone as she let out a slow sigh, the corners of her lips quirking as she pulled away. Fitz lifted his hands from her waist, taking her hands in his as he pressed a kiss to the back of her palm.

The future. The impossible inevitability. The reality they had just visited. There was so much that they didn't know, so much that they couldn't imagine. So much they couldn't fix. She felt like trembling underneath his touch at just the thought, the idea that everything they had seen, the world falling apart in the way it had, would come true.

There had to be a way, but a solution was not going to come to them today. Or tomorrow.

“It's nice to have a moment alone,” he commented finally, making her laugh almost immediately in response. “Feels like it's been decades.”

Jemma snorted, a wry smile pressing against her lips. “Technically,” she said around another short laugh, lifting her gaze up as a smirk tugged. “We just traveled seventy four years back into the past.”

The moment stilled between them before he laughed too, his lips tugging into an equally wry smile as he rubbed the pad of his thumbs along her wrists gently, sighing gently. With everything they knew now and everything that they didn't, he thought he should feel more scared than what he did.

He should want to take the two of them and run very far away, to the very edges of the earth where nobody could find them and hurt them. But they knew the odds, and neither of them had ever backed down from a fight. They both knew the other far too well for that now.

“I suppose we have a lot to talk about,” he murmured after a long moment.

They hadn't been afforded a lot of moments to do that. Since his arrival in Space, in the future, rather waking up to another reality, there'd been little time to do anything other than get them all back. No time to talk about, well everything.

The Framework. The Future. Them.

He knew that the only thing they had come to terms with was their relationship, and after spending six months locked up in solitary, thinking about her with every passing moment that he was allowed, he had never been more thankful than to know that they were still on the same page as they were with everything else.

That there was still a chance at them.

Five years ago, if anyone had told him that he would have been here with her, engaged to her, in love with her, wanting to spend the rest of his days with her, he would have never believed any of it.

Jemma had been a constant in his life for nearly a decade before he realized what had been in front of him the entire time, but it was still strange. Like a world he wasn't sure he should be privileged to.

“I guess so,” she murmured back lowly, meeting his gaze slowly.

Silence spread in between them despite the agreement, though it wasn't a bad or awkward silence. Instead, Fitz allowed himself just another moment to watch her, to fall in love with every one of her features all over again.

Eleven years later and she was still the most beautiful person he'd ever met.

Dipping his head low, he began to sort through his thoughts. He had a lot of them, and he'd be willing to bet that she had just as many, if not more. Their time apart always left them on different levels and they were always eager to get back on the same one, but it was different this time. Not just because of what had torn them apart this particular time, but because of the promise they'd given one another. The Future they both wanted.

In the grand scheme of things, Fitz still wasn't convinced that they could change the future, but he'd do whatever he could and whatever he had to in order to make sure they had one.

“You know, I was thinking, when I uh, I had the time to do so.” He began, thinking of the six months he spent in solitary once more and how that hadn't even come up into common conversation in the time that they had spent with one another, but it was fairly common knowledge now, especially given that their entire rap sheets had been publicly exposed along with the arrest warrants. She had to know that he hadn't gotten to them as easy as it had seemed. “How do you live with what I've done, what I've done in the Framework and what I've done since.”

Jemma's eyebrows narrowed, staring up at him as confusion spread over her features. “Fitz...” she whispered lowly, shaking her head quickly. She opened her mouth to speak, to argue with him, but he shook his head slowly. She let out a tiny, irritated sound, but he didn't allow her to focus on that.

The Framework was still a raw wound for the both of them, he knew, but it was how they decided to grow from there that spoke volumes about their characters. And they could do anything, they'd proven that before.

“How do I live with that? How do we live with... with the inevitability of the future?” He continued with a soft sigh, lifting her hands up to press a kiss against her knuckles as he sighed once more, the bubbling nerves at the surface indescribable and slightly overwhelming.

He hadn't been this nervous since he'd asked her to marry him, even knowing all the pain he had caused in The Framework, especially know that pain, but not wanting to spend another day without her by his side.

Fitz opened his mouth, closing it with a soft sound of indignation as he looked away from her piercing gaze and back at their entwined hands. “I've had a lot of time to think about all of this, us, our future, even before I knew what the future was.” He confessed quietly, rubbing his fingertips along the back of her hands. “And I could never find an answer that I was satisfied with, one that would make this all... magically better.”

Jemma stepped closer, instinctively, though there was hardly any space in between them as it was. In the process, their hands slipped apart and she moved to press her nearly freed one against his heart as his hand latched back onto her wrist, holding it in place. “Fitz...” she whispered softly, slowly. “I...”

“I know,” he told her, because he did. If there was anything that still remained, it was their connection – whatever that might be and he knew exactly what she was saying, exactly how she felt, because he felt the same. “There's no such thing as magic, and no way I can make any of what happened better.” He replied in a low tone, lifting to meet her gaze.

His actions were his own, and he owned them despite the pain he'd caused, despite the anguish that had resulted. But maybe Hunter was right. It was just a battle of learning when the darkness was needed and realizing that it wasn't a bad thing to have it.

“I wish I could go back sometimes, you know, back to way before all of this and just start over again. Knowing what I know, knowing what happened because of my choices, but...” He shook his head, squeezing his hand around hers as he met her gaze once more. “In order to move on, I have to accept this part of me and accept the events that happened and hope one day you'll forgive me properly.”

She sighed, shaking her head quickly. The last thing she wanted was for him to think that she hadn't already forgiven him a dozen times over, that the manipulation he went through even required forgiveness. She knew Fitz, she loved every single piece of him, every side of him. And if loving every thing about him meant loving the Doctor, then she loved him all the same. “There's nothing to forgive,” she promised him, looking at him with determination in her gaze. “And even if there was, I've already forgiven you a hundred times over.”

He thought about how she'd reacted to him killing the Kree soldiers coming after them, thought about how she'd flinched, and questioned him – something that hadn't happened between them before – and as though reading his mind, she sighed.

“I don't blame you for what happened, Fitz, that's not what this is.” She told him, her words a promise. “I don't blame you for Radcliffe, or for A.I.D.A. or for The Framework. What happened is in the past and it's important to me that you know I don't blame you for any of it.” She added unblinkingly, staring up at her with a conviction in her words that made him feel nearly invincible. “I love you, and all of your pieces.”

He thought about telling her that she should, because he still felt the weight of all of it, knowing that his hands were bloodied with so many people's deaths and the cause for such anguish, but he knew that she'd never allow him to think that way. He knew that he shouldn't think that way, either.

Every light has a shadow, and his was just something he was coming to terms with.

Fitz took another moment before nodding and leaning close, closing the distance between them as he kissed her roughly. She responded in turn, her hand reaching up to grab the collar of his jacket and pull him down toward her.

He was very lucky, he knew, to have someone like her loving him.

When he pulled away, he didn't go far, straightening up enough to catch her gaze but not moving more than that. Never leaving her side seemed like a much better plan now that they were back on earth. “I think I have an answer, though, to my earlier question.” He commented, giving her a moment as the confusion appeared and disappeared as she caught onto his meaning. “We just do.”

As long as they were together, he'd decided, they were unstoppable. Everything that happened would fix itself in time – though time itself could be damned – and they would find harmony. He knew that much to be fact more than an opinion. They'd done it countless times before.

“We've already wasted enough time. Actually... eleven years, six months, five days and three hours of it.” He recited, making her laugh gently at the accuracy. “And I don't want to live another day without you, so...” He smiled slowly, reaching up to cup her cheek gently. He was glad that he could watch her this time, know that she was listening to him. “Jemma Simmons... will you...”

“Marry me,” she whispered suddenly, as though a revelation had hit her all of a sudden and in the midst of his own, Fitz straightened up, an indignant look crossing his own features.

“Wait –” he cried, eyebrows raising as he stared at her. “That's what _I_ was going to say –”

Jemma grabbed his hands in hers and shook her head as he continued to sputter, his eyes wide and a flash of pointless betrayal passing his gaze that made her laugh despite what she was asking him.

“Are you _really_ trying to steal my proposal again, Jemma, because I let the first one go because I was just happy to see you and happy to know you were alive–”

“ _Fitz_.” She said around her laughter, squeezing her hands around his. She pressed her lips together, a small smile sliding as she shook her head. Her outburst effectively cut off anything he had left to say and he stood, stock still and mouth slightly agape. “No,” she shook her head quickly, tugging their clasped hands together and bringing him closer. “Marry me... right now.”

He still stood, mouth slightly agape, and confusion littering his features, but a small, hesitant smile had begun to form on his lips and she took that as a good sign, grinning herself.

“You're right,” she told him, trying to clear his head through the confusion and the inane thoughts that were sure to be rolling around in his head. “We... we can't waste anymore time, Fitz. Alternate dimensions, time, space, _each other_ ; we've had everything you can possibly think of separate us and I'm just...” She shook her head, pressing her lips together in a tight line as she lifted her hand away from their clasped ones and to cup his cheek, rubbing the pad of her thumb along his cheek bone. “I don't want to live another day not being your wife, Fitz.”

He could hardly believe his own ears, hardly believe that she was saying them and this wasn't some elaborate dream he'd formed. He almost felt like pinching himself, but thought better of it. “Then... I say...” He paused, grinning. “Let's get married, Jemma Simmons. Right here, right now.”

Despite the elation that filled her, she narrowed her eyes in an almost playful manner, looking around the area in which they found themselves, pressing her lips together as she tried not to laugh.“In our bunk?” She asked, unable to stop herself from bursting out the moment she did speak.

“Okay...” He wrinkled his nose despite her laughter, shaking his head. Jemma grinned cheekily. “Maybe not right here. But definitely right now.” He nodded his head decisively and looked around the room. They hadn't really given themselves any time to reacquaint themselves with anything yet, and the contents of their rooms looked mostly the same, except emptied out somehow. “You got anything white here, or did they confiscate all of our belongings after all?”

Jemma snorted, shaking her head slowly as she bit down on her lower lip. “We're hardly anything traditional anyway. How about we both take a long shower, dress however we please, and worry about the semantics afterwards.” She let out a light laugh, exhilaration filling her, and it was hard not to beam back at her.

She looked so happy, and he just wanted to freeze this moment forever.

“That hardly sounds like the Jemma Simmons I know and love,” he replied teasingly, sliding his arm around her waist as he pulled her against him. She damn near giggled, placing her palms flat along his chest. “But you drive a hard bargain and I accept your terms.” He murmured, pressing a quick kiss to her lips that only made her smile grow larger. “Hard to argue with my soon-to-be wife.”

“I'm sure you'll find time in the future,” she joked, and then pulled away from him, looking toward the doorway fleetingly. “I'll find Daisy and tell her. But first, I need a nice, hot shower, and then we'll meet up–”

“In the common room,” he finished for her and she nodded quickly, her excitement palpable. His was no better, he realized, and he kind of felt as though he were in a fog, unable to believe that this was happening. That they were really about to do this.

“Rings!” She said suddenly, causing him to glance over at her quickly, noticing she looked a little crestfallen as she stared back. “We don't have rings.”

“I'll figure something out,” he promised. He knew in all likelihood everything, including the tiny velvet box he'd been hiding underneath some pants in his drawer, was probably gone, but it couldn't be hard to meld two rings together while he waited.

Jemma visibly relaxed, nodding her head as she stepped toward the door, deciding her outfit could wait until after she showered. “I love you,” she beamed as she slid out, leaving him alone in their room, his heart racing.

“I love you too!” He called out, loud enough for her to hear it, and then as the door shut, he looked around the room silently, wondering just how much had been given back to them and how much had been taken in the first place and then set out toward the lab.

He had some rings to make, and a wedding to the love of his life on the horizon. Today couldn't get any better.

 


End file.
